World Squash

In January 1967, representatives from seven nations (Australia, Great Britain, Egypt, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and South Africa) met in London and formed the International Squash Rackets Federation (IFRS). Later that year, Australia hosted the first ISRF men’s championships. The inaugural edition of the World Women’s Team Championship would be staged close to a decade later, in 1979, in Birmingham, Great Britain. The federation was renamed as the World Squash Federation (WSF) in 1992.

Squash has been bidding to be on the Olympic Programme for many years, and the WSF formed a commission specifically tasked with obtaining International Olympic Committee (IOC) approval of squash as an Olympic sport. A mixed youth exhibition tournament was first held at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.

In August 2022, the Los Angeles 2028 Organizing Committee shortlisted nine proposed sports for consideration as optional events for those Olympics, with one of those sports being squash. At the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai, India, the IOC approved squash as an optional sport for the 2028 Olympics, along with four other sports.

In early 2025, the organization changed its name to simply World Squash, although it still uses the WSF acronym. A member of the Association of the IOC-recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF), as of January 2026, World Squash has 93 full members and 20 associate members. The federation’s office is located in Hastings, Great Britain, and its current president is Zena Wooldridge.